AL IKHLAS (The Purity of Faith)
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful
1 Say: He is Allah, the one and only;[1]
2 Allah, the eternal, absolute;
3 He sires no offspring,[2] nor is he anyone’s offspring;[3]
4 And there is none like him.
[1] The consistent testimony of Al-Kitab is that there is only one God. The Taurat declares, “Hear, O Israel: Allah is our God; Allah is one” (Deut. 6:4). The Holy Injil teaches the same thing, “Hear, O Israel, Allah our God, Allah is one” (Mark 12:29).
[2] Allah has no physical sons or daughters. He is not anyone’s “father” physically. Al-Kitab rightly refers to Allah as “Father” in both the Taurat and Injil, but this must be understood in a figurative, spiritual sense, not a physical sense. The Quran also uses “father” in a figurative sense. For example, in Surah 111 there is the case of a man who is figuratively called “father of flame” (Abu Lahab). More about the phrase “children of Allah” can be found in the study course “The Way of Truth”, lesson 12.
[3] The holy Injil states plainly that ‘Isa is God’s Son (Ibn Allah), but no one should understand this to mean that Allah has physically fathered a son. Astaghfirullah! “Son of God” (Ibn Allah) must be understood in a figurative, spiritual sense, not a physical sense. For example, Surah 18:50 mentions the “children” of Iblis, but Satan has no physical offspring, so it is speaking figuratively, not literally. The study course “Allah’s Eternal Word” deals with these matters in Lesson Four.